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Unions urge OECD Ministerial to make right choices on cost-of-living crisis

03 May 2023

Trade unions took an active part in consultations on the OECD Ministerial Council meeting due to take place on 7-8 June.

The OECD Ministerial Council is expected to adopt new OECD Guidelines for multi-national companies on responsible business conduct, discuss economic policies “for resilient, inclusive societies and growth” and take place at the same time as the launch of OECD’s influential Economic Outlook.

A pre-Ministerial meeting consultation with social partners was held in London at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as the UK is Chairing this year’s OECD Ministerial Council.

“Governments have crucial decisions to take about economic policy in the cost-of-living crisis and cannot chose the wrong policies”

— Veronica Nilsson, Acting General Secretary of TUAC

Trade unions outlined a series of key demands including

  • Central banks should stop increasing interest rates
  • Governments should promote collective bargaining and tri-partite social dialogue to enable real wages to recover lost purchasing power.
  • Governments must ensure strong investment in infrastructure, health, and education as well as expand social safety nets
  • The OECD shape the rules and policies for a human-centred approach to technology, including AI
  • The Responsible Business Conduct Guidelines to be adopted at the Ministerial Council in June should reinforce the right of all workers to join and form trade unions to bargain collectively and ensure that human rights due diligence is applied throughout the supply chain.

Taking part in the meeting from the trade unions side were TUAC, the UK TUC and Italian CGIL, including TUAC Acting General Secretary Veronica Nilsson and TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak. Also taking part were UK Minister of State Anne-Marie Trevelyan, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and representatives of business and employers’ organization Business At OECD.

“The world economy is dangerously precarious and not resilient’’

— Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC

“Governments have crucial decisions to take about economic policy in the cost-of-living crisis and cannot chose the wrong policies” said Veronica Nilsson, Acting General Secretary of TUAC.  “The world urgently needs to invest in jobs, education and health, and the green energy transition, and avoid a fresh bout of austerity. Making workers pay the price, again, for a crisis they did not create would be unacceptable and have serious social and political consequences.”

“The world economy is dangerously precarious and not resilient’’ said Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC. “As President Biden warned, the economy is operating in the interests of wealth not work. Policymakers in the UK ask workers to be poorer to protect an economy that serves only wealth. This is a broken model. We challenge the British Government and the OECD to recognise the scale of the failure and to lead far-reaching discussions with Ministers from all OECD countries to agree far-reaching proposals to benefit work.’’

L-R Geoff Tily TUC, Veronica Nilsson TUAC, Paul Nowak TUC, Salavatore Marra CGIL, Filip Stefanovic TUAC